Identifying Animal Footprints and Paw Prints
You don’t have to be deep in the forest to be an animal tracker. Animal footprints are often as close as your backyard or garden. Take a look at these animal track pictures—showing footprints in both snow and mud.
How to Track Animals and Identify Animal Tracks
Tracking is something that you learn best by doing. Get out there and look! Here are a few tips:
- Animal tracks are easiest to find in mud, soft garden soil, sand, and snow.
- Study the ground closely. Get down on your hands and knees. Note the size of the track and whether it shows claw marks. You may wish to make a sketch.
- Track early in the morning or late in the day when shadows make prints easier to see.
- Watch for animal droppings called scat. The scat will also help you track the animal. If it’s dry all the way through, the tracks may have been left a while ago. Scat can also tell you if you’re tracking a vegetarian or a meat eater.
- If you lose the trail, search in a circle around the track until you pick up the trail again.
- The most important tip of all: don’t get lost!
Animal Track Pictures in the Winter Snow
If you live in a snowy area, this is probably the easiest way to see and identify tracks. Take a look at these common animal tracks.
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Animal Track Pictures in the Mud
Here are the same animal tracks as they might look in a muddy garden or backyard!
We love all these animals, but if these are destroying your garden, here are simple ways to deter common critters:
deer, mice, moles, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, voles, and woodchucks or groundhogs.
Have you seen any animal tracks in your backyard lately? Tell us about it below!
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I have pictures of tracks in field next to our home. Deer tracks we know, cats, we know. But this one with three out front and back. We can’t find. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
My dog tied up with something that made these marks. 3 claws and a hole. I have a picture. My dog hemmed the animal under our deck but I couldn't see it. It clawed my dogs nose but I never saw the animal. I only heard it growl. It did not sound like a cat.
I noticed that this article didn't include possum tracks. Other than coyotes/the neighbor's dog, and birds, possums are the most seen wildlife in this town. To me, their tracks look like little baby hands.
Looking for Semi-aquatic pet turtle footprints examples _ thank you genuinely great read
Hi, I was recently in Costa Rica and came across some huge catlike paw prints while hiking along the beach and mountains. Can I send you some photos to help you identify the breed of animal it is?
Mainly in response to Grannysharon and others: I noticed that a lot of people have been describing three toed tracks. I would always go with the most logical explanation first--ostrich? Most likely. But do they have pads on their feet? If you have a park ranger look at a cast , they would be the best person to declare/rule out an ostrich track. But if they tell you it is not that....have you considered "alternative theories"? LOL! Let me explain....I have lived in Halifax county NC for 10 years or so, and saw my first bigfoot/sasquatch cross the road in front of my car 3 and a half years ago in daylight! They are quite the thing around here and we have numerous credible sightings from townspeople, a police officer, hunters, college professors and people are constantly finding and making casts of these bigfoot prints at Medoc Mt. State park on many occasions. Now that aside, these tracks are not bigfoot tracks, but this is what attracted my attention: There was a string of bigfoot sightings 5 years ago at the park and investigators casted a typical five toed bigfoot track from a sighting area along with a print cast of what you described above. It even matched in the relative size: I would say the cast is 7-8 inches long and 6-7 inches across with pads on the bottom and three toes with claw impressions (not like pointy dog claws but wider like sharp fingernails) and it also looked like there was the start of maybe a fourth toe off to the side(like a little bump but maybe didnt cast well). The expert who casted them showed them to park officials and rangers and no one could identify them as any biological animal they knew of. Now the area where these were recovered.....a bigfoot was seen as well as a bipedal creature with a snout and pointed ears. I have heard a woman saw a "werewolf" standing beside the road around here and had a man and his wife tell me in Walmart (after recognizing me as a speaker at the annual Bigfoot in the Park event) and confided in me they saw a "werewolf" cross the road twice, a year apart, as well as seeing strange blue lights. These three toed prints have reported to the local cryptozoology expert as being found in other parts of the county. That is what I getting at: Do an internet search on Dogman sightings etc. Now I don't know if it was that, but that is what people saw around where the prints were found. So I am putting two and two together. Perhaps.....
Long track that looks like the animal had wheels on their back legs! Two parallel lines going all over the snow covered back yard about a foot apart. Wish I could post a photo. Thanks
I think the back paw trails are from a chipmunk or field mouse if the snow is light they scurry across the top of the snow; leaving a trail; either that or a song-bird; like a junco-songbird leaves a trail in the light snow~
Hi, I saw some tracks that look much like the ones towards bottom of this main articles front picture, in the lower part of the pic here, going across horizontally the set that is the only set in pic that intersects and goes across the red berries in the small tree on lower left part of pic. Any idea what these are? thanks
From the west, crossed my frozen, snow covered
pond then off the south end. Both front and rear
prints are side by side. The snow wasn't deep and the prints weren't clear enough but you could see pads and claws. I have pictures. Thanks, Ed Z
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